Guide Me, Home, the third installment of Attica Locke’s Southern noir Highway 59 mystery series continues along the veins of the first two. Darren Matthews, a Black Texas ranger, is persistently drinking, is burnt out, and resigns his commission. He divorces his wife and begins a relationship with Randie, the wife of the murdered Black man in the first in the trilogy, Bluebird, Bluebird. He still has legal issues hanging over his head from Heaven, My Home, the second in the trilogy, in which he obtained a false confession regarding a murder.
On top of all the above drama, Bell, his drunken mother resurfaces after several years and claims she is both sober and working as a maid in a sorority house. She asks him to investigate the goings-on at the sorority as she believes a girl, the sole Black sorority sister, is missing. As Darren works with his mother to solve the mystery of a girl who seems to have vanished without a trace, he learns that a web of falsehoods underlie the sorority, a fraternity, and the girl’s family. He also learns that his own family has its share of secrets, and that the people he most loves have lied to him.
Locke writes credible dialogue, but more, she writes with strength and conviction about racial relationships in East Texas and the growth of hate crimes during the Trump administration. Her descriptions of the East Texas landscape are powerful and awe-inspiring. Best, though, are her flawed, all-too-human characters; most, like Darren Matthews, are intrinsically good but haunted by family secrets and overt and subtle racial discrimination. All are fully-fledged and have credible character arcs.
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Guide Me Home (Mulholland Books, September 3, 2024) is available through:
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You can read my reviews of the first two Highway 59 books here: Bluebird, Bluebird and Heaven, My Home.
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